


revanta

by toujours_nigel



Category: Mahabharata - Vyasa
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:36:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23161765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toujours_nigel/pseuds/toujours_nigel
Summary: Gandhari seeks news of her new daughter-in-law from, well, not exactly the horse's mouth, but certainly the charioteer's.
Relationships: Karna & Gandhari
Comments: 5
Kudos: 14
Collections: Rangabhumi Round Two: An Indian Mythology and Lore Fanfic Exchange





	revanta

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dulce_periculum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dulce_periculum/gifts).

“Bring Angaraj Vasusena to me,” Gandhari says, and the maid bows in answer but does not set about her work. “If he has gone hunting, look for him at dusk. I know we are not now at war, so he will have no reason to tarry longer from home.”

The maid remains standing, and brings her palms together again, bangles clashing. A new girl, who has not mastered yet the art of making just sufficient noise. “No, Majesty. He is... in the prince’s chambers.”

“He often is,” Gandhari says. “You will find no doors barred to you, in my service.”

The girl stutters quiet as they enter her presence. A good sign, that she had been speaking: Vasusena in a good mood can charm birds from the trees, but is liable to be sullen when unhappy. In this he is like the eldest of her sons.

“You had a question, Majesty?”

She has not heard him accept tumblers of cooling tisanes, dishes of peeled almonds, sugared melon. In good humour and a hurry, then.

“Tell me about Bhanumati. All I hear is that she is beautiful and kind, as I have heard said about every princess since I was one.”

“They were truthful then, if never since,” Vasusena offers. She can hear the smile in his voice, and the maid’s tittering. “Princess Bhanumati is spirited. She is steady in a hurtling chariot and can sleep rough without complaint. She can cook, after a kind. Her voice is not melodious, but our Prince scarcely needs a good singer.”

His own voice is beautiful, of course, every sound well-rounded. Vasusena has long since set aside the soothing rumble of charioteers.

“And is she beautiful, and kind?”

“Lovely as a field of wheat dancing in the breeze, Majesty, and kind enough to not avert her eyes from me or flinch when I helped her spring into the chariot.”

How convenient, when her other informant is her brother, that Vasusena was never taught to braid his words into a net of cheerful deceit. To him she can say, “I heard it called abduction,” and simply wait for an answer.

“Only Princess Bhanumati can offer the truth of that,” he says, still quietly amused. “I do not think it so, nor does your son. But they did not call it abduction, when Devavrat Bhishma forced the princesses of Kashi to become the queens of Hastinapura.”

“They did not call it so in Hastinapura,” she answers, and feels understanding twine between them like a spider’s gossamer thread. “I will send for my daughter-in-law. Will you tarry till she comes?”

“Till the end of the day, if you will it,” he promises. “I was on my way to the stables, but your maids are sweeter tempered than the grooms.”

“You have business with Bhanumati and it suits you to linger here.”

Vasusena laughs, striking the table with the flat of his hand. “One can hide nothing from you, Majesty. The Princess has offered to teach me _chausar_.”


End file.
